This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of a refrigeration system using absorption cooling. The present disclosure relates more particularly to a refrigeration system for a facility such as a supermarket, etc. that uses waste heat from the facility (or other location, such as an adjacent or nearby facility that produces waste heat, such as in a power generation system, etc. that may be used as a heat source in an absorption cooling device to provide a source of cooling to the refrigeration system. The use of absorption cooling from a source of waste heat is intended to improve the overall efficiency of the refrigeration system by pre-cooling hot compressed refrigerant before a condensation stage, or sub-cooling a condensed refrigerant after a condensing stage, or as a primary or supplemental source of cooling in the condensing stage.
Refrigeration systems that provide cooling to temperature controlled display devices (e.g. cases, merchandisers, etc.) in supermarkets or similar facilities typically operate independently from the facility's sources of waste heat, or from waste heat that is generated and available from nearby facilities (e.g. from power generation, etc.). It would be desirable to use an available source of waste heat to improve the efficiency of such refrigeration systems.